Claire’s Reviews
Stats
# of Reviews:
27
Average Review:
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Worst-Reviewed Albums:
The Number of the Beast - Iron Maiden
Best-Reviewed Decades:
2000’s, 1990’s, 1950’s
Worst-Reviewed Decades:
1970’s, 1960’s, 1980’s
Best-Reviewed Genres:
Acoustic Rock, Big Music, Boom Bap, Conscious Hip Hop, Emo, Experimental Hip Hop, Geek Rock, Grunge, Hardcore Hip Hop, Heartland Rock, Hip Hop Soul, Neo-Soul, Political Hip Hop, Pop Punk, Post-Punk Revival, Power Pop, Reggae, Turntablism
Worst-Reviewed Genres:
Heavy Metal, Baroque Pop, Chamber Folk, Blue-Eyed Soul, Electronic, Experimental Rock, Glam Rock, Jazz Pop, Progressive Rock, Roots Rock, Soft Rock, Space Age Pop, Zolo
Best-Reviewed Scenes:
East Coast Hip Hop, Madchester, Mod
Worst-Reviewed Scenes:
New Wave of British Heavy Metal, Greenwich Village Scene
Best-Reviewed Tags:
aggressive, androgynous vocals, apathetic, lethargic, raw, sampling
Worst-Reviewed Tags:
apocalyptic, history, infernal, triumphant, cryptic, misanthropic, mysterious
Listen Party: 3/21/25
Released: 1994
Genres: Power Pop, Alternative Rock, Geek Rock, Pop Punk, Emo
Tags: melodic, energetic, male vocalist, bittersweet, summer, playful, anthemic, introspective, lonely, passionate, alienation, longing, anxious, breakup, quirky, melancholic, love, heavy, uplifting, sentimental
Claire 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕
Oh hells yeah. The first album I know front to back. Listening to it in 2025, instantly brings me back to 2001, playing the songs on guitar with the bassist and singer of my band in a stale-smelling dorm room, lit only by a string of Christmas lights and computer monitors. Since I know the Blue Album well, I'm going to try and do a little research and dive into each of the songs the best that I can.
"My Name is Jonas" - Excellent opening track. I believe it's about escaping into childhood memories while dealing with adult problems? Reddit says Wepeel is the name Rivers Cuomo gave to his sled as a kid. Very Citizen Kane. I don’t know if that’s a troll response, but let's go with it.
"No One Else" - I don't love the controlling, jealous kind of partner Cuomo portrays himself as in this song. "I want a girl who laughs for no one else...when I'm away she never leaves the house". Yick.
"The World Has Turned And Left Me Here" - The fallout from the relationship in "No One Else" with Cuomo feeling lonely after being broken up with. He stated that "No One Else" is about "the jealous-obsessive asshole in me freaking out on my girlfriend," while "'The World Has Turned and Left Me Here’ is the same asshole wondering why she's gone." Self reflection and growth in lyrics? I can get down to that.
"Buddy Holly" - I don't know. It just seems to be about Cuomo's iconic bespectacled appearance. As for the homies dissin' his girl, Cuomo said that the homies were his fellow band members, and that the girl was actually a friend of his in the Santa Monica College Choir. Remember that video though? (It's directed by Spike Jonze, by the way.) I have a strong memory of it being Nirvana, and not Weezer in this video. I could never really understand where that memory came from until I read that Cuomo was inspired by the video for "In Bloom".
"Undone - The Sweater Song" - Cuomo lifted the titular line from his English professor demonstrating the effectiveness of a focused thesis statement. "All I have to do is hold a single thread in your sweater and it will unravel as you walk away." In a 2009 Rolling Stone article, Cuomo admitted to almost completely ripping off Metallica with “Undone's” catchy guitar hook. "I was trying to write a Velvet Underground-type song because I was super into them, and I came up with that guitar riff. I just picked up that acoustic guitar and the first thing I played was that riff...It wasn’t until years after I wrote it that I realized it’s almost a complete rip-off of ‘Sanitarium’ by Metallica. It just perfectly encapsulates Weezer to me – you’re trying to be cool like Velvet Underground but your metal roots just pump through unconsciously."
"Surf Wax America" - This one's fairly self-explanatory. It's Weezer trying to be punk rock Beach Boys. Look, I like the song, but this rhyme in the first verse makes me cringe: "I'm waxing down so that I'll go real fast, I'm waxing down because it's really a blast". Pat Wilson said that none of the band members had ever surfed in their life when they wrote that song.
"Say It Ain't So" - A song about an alcoholic stepfather? Close, but not exactly. Cuomo has said that he had mistakenly blamed the divorce of his mom and biological dad on alcoholism, and that when he found his step-dad's beers in the family fridge years later, he feared the same fate.
"In The Garage" - Just a list of Gen X nerd shit. Authentically Weezer, unlike a certain song about being cool and surfing.
"Holiday" - Beach Boys and Kerouac references. This one always felt like a Green Album song to me. Probably just because the subject matter is similar to "Island in the Sun".
"Only in Dreams" - The kind of love you might only experience in dreams. I love the lyrics, "You can't avoid her, She's in the air, In between molecules, Of oxygen and carbon dioxide" as well as "You walk up to her, Ask her to dance, She says, 'Hey baby, I just might take the chance', You say, 'It's a good thing, That you float in the air, That way there's no way, I will crush your pretty toenails into a thousand pieces". Excellent closing track.
It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back - Public Enemy
Listen Party: 4/18/25
Released: 1986
Genres: Political Hip Hop, Hardcore Hip Hop, Conscious Hip Hop, Turntablism, Experimental Hip Hop
Scene: East Coast Hip Hop
Tags: political, angry, protest, sampling, raw, male vocalist, urban, conscious, dense, energetic, rebellious, noisy, rhythmic, violence, playful, boastful, passionate, anxious, aggressive, progressive, anthemic, hypnotic
Claire 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕
I appreciate Chuck D's flow and voice. Flavor Flav is a little harder to take seriously. I get the sense that his role is mostly that of a hypeman. But it feels like everything that's classic about Public Enemy stuck to Chuck and everything that's dated stuck to Flav.
Flavor Flav is the frontman on Cold Lampin' with Flavor, in which he says the word "flavor" 28 times, though it feels like more than that.
This is 1988, a year before N.W.A's Straight Outta Compton. NYC hip hop's dominance remained unchallenged. There is a moment of straight-up wholesomeness in Bring the Noise, with Chuck and Flav name-dropping other Queens-based artists, Run-DMC, Eric B, LL Cool J, and even Anthrax.
Anthrax, of course would later join Public Enemy, to do a metal version of Bring the Noise. Its feature in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 was my main exposure to Public Enemy. Well that and random Flavor Flav appearances on reality TV in the 2000s.
Party for Your Right to Fight cleverly samples the classic Beastie Boys track, while reminding the listener about the prioritization of social action over socialization. I also heard a moment of Get Up, Stand Up in there. The doubling of Chuck's and Flav's rapping doesn't really work imo.
First Band on the Moon - The Cardigans
Listen Party: 4/16/25
Released: 1996
Genres: Indie Pop, Pop Rock, Indie Rock, Twee Pop, Neo-Acoustic, Lounge, Art Pop, Cocktail Nation
Tags: female vocalist, playful, bittersweet, longing, melodic, sentimental, sarcastic, love, sensual, introspective, sexual, eclectic, dark, energetic, quirky
Claire 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗
I was surprised to find The Cardigans' First Band on the Moon on this list. I've always thought of them as a two-hit wonder and not especially important in the history of popular music. But I was excited to draw this record nonetheless. Following a jazz and a prog album, I was hungry for something a little less academic.
First Band on the Moon feels like dessert. The Cardigans deliver bubble gum pop hooks and electronic disco beats fused with a smooth lounge act sound. They managed to make all of that cool in the 1990s by performing it with a layer of detached irony.
Nowhere is that clearer than their cover of Iron Man. The bassist and guitarist were in a metal band before they joined the Cardigans, and I imagine that has something to do with their choice of covering Black Sabbath. But The Cardigans version is hardly recognizable from the original. And to 90s youth, nothing was cooler than proving you held nothing sacred.
Then there's Lovefool of course. When I was a Freshman in high school, the cultural phenomenon that was the Romeo + Juliet remake was impossible to escape. And front and center in the soundtrack was Lovefool. There's no doubt in my mind that a heavy dose of nostalgia is tipping the scales for my 4.5 moon rating here. But it's a fun album made more fun by it being attached to old memories.
Listen Party: 3/19/25
Released: 2004
Genres: Post-Punk Revival, Pop Rock, New Wave, Synthpop, Big Music
Tags: male vocalist, melodic, energetic, bittersweet, anthemic, anxious, romantic, rhythmic, passionate, introspective, sexual, melancholic, urban, love, longing
Claire 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗
“Hot Fuss” is the first album from the Strange New Places project that feels fully from my era. Despite that, I have never listened to this album all the way through.
It starts off strongly, with SO MANY familiar songs - "Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine", "Mr. Brightside", "Smile Like You Mean It", "Somebody Told Me" and "All These Things That I've Done". All certified bangers in their time. And though some suffered from overexposure, two decades later, I think they've all held up quite well.
But could somebody tell me what "Somebody Told Me" is about? Is it referring to Brandon Flowers dating a pre-transition trans man? Or a trans woman who detransitioned? Or someone who switches genders when dating different people? I know the trans angle is a tempting read on the chorus's lyrics, but I'm not sure that's it. The rest of the song seems to be about trying and failing to get someone's attention in the club. With that in mind, is the chorus simply a "hey girl, we got similar tastes in romantic partners - wanna fuck about it?"
The Killers never had The Strokes' cool-kid cachet, but the almost-bored vocal delivery of "Change Your Mind" could easily be imported from "Is This It", and the synth line could be swapped with The Strokes’ distinctive lead guitar. In fact, Flowers himself said, "The Strokes’ first record came out and we ditched everything we wrote except for 'Mr. Brightside’ and started again, because that record’s so good, you know? It was just…we realized that they raised the bar. Whether The Strokes know it or not, they really changed our path.”
After nearly an album full of anthemic rock, the lower energy "Everything Will Be Alright" was a near-skip for me, then the mid-song keys came in with their pleasant backing rhythm and melody. I'm glad I gave it a shot. The song is such a groove.
I learned from Just John, that’s it, that’s the reviewer’s name™’s review, that The Killers are Mormon. It surprised me because, between “Mr. Brightside”, “Somebody Told Me”, and “Midnight Show”, “Hot Fuss” is so horny.
I didn't expect to give this album five stars moons, but there's not a single bad song on here. Or to paraphrase Sum 41, it's all Killers and no fillers. What can I say? It's indie rock'n'roll for me.
Listen Party: 3/24/25
Released: 1965
Genres: Pop Rock, Folk Rock, Psychedelic Pop, Folk Pop, British Rhythm & Blues
Tags: melodic, love, male vocalist, bittersweet, romantic, autumn, mellow, melancholic, eclectic, sentimental, introspective, longing, happy, warm, spring
Claire 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑
My understanding of Rubber Soul is that it sits at the transition from boy-band-Ed-Sullivan-Show-Beatles to traveling-to-India-and-dropping-acid Beatles. And you can definitely hear elements of both iterations here. I think that makes it a great first album of theirs to listen to.
Oh yeah, this is my first full listen-through of any Beatles album. Can you believe that? I know so many of their songs of course. It’s damn-near impossible not to. I tried to keep track of which songs I’d definitely heard before a full listen-thru, and Rubber Soul is batting over .700 in that department. Even then, it’s sometimes hard to know if I recognize a song because I’ve definitely heard it before, or because it’s The Beatles and they make the most familiar sounding music in the world.
I found the illustrated-typography treatment of “Rubber Soul” for the cover art pretty interesting. It is so quintessentially 1960s hippie-movement, and came out four years before Woodstock. It has me wondering if Rubber Soul was essentially the prototype for distorted bubble letters that we associate with bell bottoms and psychedelic drugs/ music. I haven’t found a satisfying answer to that question, but the designer who did the illustrated text on Rubber Soul was a man named Charles Front, who was in fact a pioneer in that aesthetic. But let’s get to the music.
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“Drive My Car” - I can’t hear it without thinking about starting a road trip with my brother at the crack of dawn in the Northern California redwoods. This song came on his playlist, and he decided to honk the horn to the rhythm of “a-beep-beep, beep-beep yeah”. Instead the crappy rental subcompact’s horn just stuck, so we’re there driving through perhaps the most peaceful place on the earth, interrupting it all with “BWAAAAAAAAAAA”.
“Norwegian Wood” - One of the most interesting songs on the album in my opinion. It marks the first time George incorporated sitar into a Beatles song. I really want to understand how this went over at the time. Did incorporating eastern music and more experimental sounds into the music of the world's biggest pop stars alienate current fans? Obviously, they did just fine, but it’s hard for me to comprehend any artist shifting their sound so dramatically and not only maintaining their fanbase, but growing it.
“You Won’t See Me” - It’s simple, but I really like the ascending harmonies on the backing vocals singing the titular lyrics in the chorus.
“Think For Yourself” - One of George’s two allotted songs. The fuzzy bass makes it.
“Michelle” - The chord progression and melodies used in the choruses are so captivatingly odd and haunting for a pop song. I know just enough about music theory to know they’re breaking some basic rules here, but not enough to explain it beyond that. It’s up there with “Norwegian Wood” for most interesting songs on “Rubber Soul”.
“I’m Looking Through You” - Love hearing McCartney break out his shouty voice on “You’re not the same”, followed by that little riff on guitar and organ.
“In My Life” - The guitar intro. The harmonized vocals. That harpsichord solo (not an actual harpsichord apparently, but rather a Baroque-style piano recorded an octave down and played back at double the speed).
“Wait”
“If I Needed Someone” - George’s other song on “Rubber Soul”
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“The Word”
“What Goes On” - Ringo’s allotted track is a country song.
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“Girl” - I can appreciate the novelty and innovation of making the sound of sucking teeth a major part of the chorus of your pop song, but this is just one of those nails-on-chalkboard sounds for me. If you’re not similarly affected, I imagine this is a beautiful song for you. I actually really like Fontaines D.C.’s “Starburster”, which employs a similar technique in its chorus.
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“Run For Your Life” - Written by John Lennon (a man who has admitted to hitting women). It’s a song threatening to kill a young woman for pursuing another man. That is…um…bad.
MTV Unplugged in New York - Nirvana
Listen Party: 4/3/25
Released: 1994
Genres: Acoustic Rock, Alternative Rock, Grunge, Folk Rock
Tags: acoustic, male vocalist, melodic, melancholic, passionate, introspective, sombre, lonely, pessimistic, alienation, depressive, raw, bittersweet, anxious, lethargic, longing, mellow, death, apathetic, nocturnal
Claire 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑
My history with Nirvana is complicated. In middle school, after Kurt Cobain's death, and despite not knowing a single song of theirs, I wrote their name (and Green Day's) in white-out on my backpack to make other kids think I’m cool. I had Weird Al's Off The Deep End, which parodies the Nevermind album art, as well as the song, Smells Like Teen Spirit, well before I knew either reference. But I began listening to alternative rock radio, and quickly became familiar with a number of Nirvana's hits. At some point, I also picked up "Nevermind", but never listened to it as much as I did "Off The Deep End".
Then, sometime in high school or college, I got sick of hearing the same Nirvana songs over and over again on the radio, and adopted the somewhat edgelord opinion that Nirvana was only as popular as they were because Cobain killed himself. I held that opinion well into adulthood. I was sick of Nirvana, and I was sick of grunge music as a whole.
Then I moved to Seattle. My opinion didn't change overnight, but my once-alternative-radio-listening ass was now a public-radio-listening ass. And I heard more than one panel discussion on the local public radio station about what it was like in Seattle during the hay day of grunge. It gave me a lot of food for thought about how this place shaped that music, and I'd imagine myself in the same place thirty years earlier, and what that would be like.
Today, my opinion is that Cobain was in fact, the voice of a generation, cut tragically short. But grunge music is still far from my favorite. It's simply too dark and depressing for me to enjoy regularly. I suspect that Unplugged will be my favorite album by Nirvana, for that reason. The songs are certainly still dark and depressing, but the acoustic nature seems to moderate the heaviness of their sound.
Back to those panels about Seattle in the grunge era. I remember one of the discussions being about what killed grunge, and the panel unanimously agreed that it was Green Day's Dookie. That is an album that I played on repeat from the time I got home from school until my parents got home. And I think that about sums up my experience as a Xillenial - on the cusp of the Nirvana generation and the Green Day generation, but apparently leaning Green Day.
All apologies. There's an album to review here. Like I said, it's probably my favorite Nirvana album. I'm also struck by how few of the songs performed were "hits". There's no "Smells Like Teen Spirit" here. And of the 14 tracks, six of those aren't even Nirvana songs. THREE of them are by the Meat Puppets. And that feels like a real rock-star moment for Cobain and Co. "We won't play what you expect us to play, and we're going to use our time in the spotlight to plug another band".
Released: 1988
Genres: Singer-Songwriter, Folk Rock, Folk Pop, Acoustic Rock, Heartland Rock
Tags: conscious, female vocalist, political, love, melancholic, sentimental, melodic, acoustic, passionate, androgynous vocals, protest, bittersweet, philosophical
Claire 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑
Oh Tracy Chapman, what a pleasure it was to listen to your self-titled album. I think even casual listeners such as myself will recognize the first two songs: "Talkin' Bout a Revolution" and of course, "Fast Car". And if they're anything like me, they might be surprised by the 1980s release date on this album. I always assumed that Chapman's rise to fame happened during the 90s, and even after listening to this album, it's hard to imagine it in an 80s context. This was the era of George Michael and Tiffany.
"Across the Lines" and "Behind the Wall" could have very well been written during the height of the Black Lives Matter protests, and are painful reminders that very little has changed in the nearly 40 years since Chapman's first release.
The synthesized pan flutes in "Mountains O' Things" feel corny and of-their-moment, but do not detract from the song's anti-commercialism message.
"She's Got Her Ticket" pleasantly surprises by introducing a roots reggae beat to Chapman's iconic dusky, folksy sound.
There has been much speculation about Chapman's sexuality over the years. She has been outed by former partners, but has never publicly claimed a lesbian, bisexual or queer identity. Lyrics in songs about love and heartbreak like, "Baby Can I Hold You", "For My Lover", and "If Not Now..." seem to be kept intentionally vague. Even the closing track, "For You", seems to be more about Chapman herself than whatever romantic partner it's seemingly directed at. I imagine that in the 1980s, the conspicuously missing he/him pronouns from love songs were an enormous wink and a nod to the LGBTQ community. Chapman hasn't released an album since 2008, but I can't help but wonder what she thinks of current Bedroom Pop starlets like Clairo, Girl in Red, and Billie Eilish fully dropping the veil in their lyrics. I hope she’d be proud of the progress.
Music for the Masses - Depeche Mode
Listen Party: 4/11/25
Released: 1987
Genres: Synthpop, Darkwave, Electro-Industrial, Neoclassical Darkwave
Tags: male vocalist, atmospheric, cold, passionate, dark, melodic, rhythmic, sensual, romantic, nocturnal, sombre, melancholic, sexual, bittersweet, mechanical, longing, lush
Claire 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑
Ah yes. Depeche Mode. One of those bands I’ve proclaimed to enjoy for a long time, but have only ever really known the hits. And scanning the tracks on Music for the Masses, I wasn’t sure if I’d find any of those here. There’s no Personal Jesus here.
But I was in luck, because as soon as the synth started off the opener, Never Let Me Down Again, I knew that I was rediscovering a familiar favorite. What a great track! Likewise, Strangelove’s synth hook was something I recognized.
The mechanical, rhythmic sexual grunting between partners on I Want You Now gives me an uncomfortable sense of voyeurism that I'd rather not be participating in. That song's a skip for me. And Pimpf is kind of a throwaway track in my opinion. It does have a hidden track though, which disproves my theory that Green Day's Dookie was the first album to do that. I had no actual reason to believe that, but just really wanted it to be true.
The dark, electronic sound of Music for the Masses, played enormously as if in an empty amphitheater, is such a hallmark for this era of music. They’re clearly contemporaries of The Cure. Depeche Mode is UK-based, however they were only ever considered a passing novelty in their home country, and were much more celebrated on this side of the Atlantic.
tHE sCORE - fUGEES
Listen Party: 4/8/25
Released: 1996
Genres: Conscious Hip Hop, Boom Bap, Neo-Soul, Reggae, Hip Hop Soul
Scene: East Coast Hip Hop
Tags: female vocalist, male vocalist, political, crime, conscious, introspective, boastful, urban, nocturnal, sampling, lush, rhythmic, melodic, passionate, drugs, lethargic
Claire 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑
As a casual listener, my recollection of Fugees was that it was the Lauryn Hill show featuring Wyclef and Pras. The singles, Ready or Not, Fu-Gee-La, and Killing Me Softly With His Song, as well as The Score’s album cover definitely fueled that misconception. While listening to the full album, I was surprised how much balance there was between the three artists. My guess is that the label identified Hill as the most marketable member and put her front and center in the media. But that's just speculation nearly 30 years later.
Those singles mentioned above are my standout songs from the album, but I enjoyed almost every track. Fugees are masterful at blending hip hop, soul and reggae for a sound that is uniquely theirs. There are a few exceptions though. The “No Woman, No Cry” cover doesn’t do much for me. And most regrettably, the inclusion of a racist skit following “The Beast”, severely reduces the likelihood that I’ll revisit this album as a whole again.
Listen Party: 3/20/25
Released: 1989
Genres: Baggy, Jangle Pop, Indie Rock, Neo-Psychedelia, Britpop, C86, Paisley Underground
Scenes: Madchester
Tags: psychedelic, melodic, uplifting, energetic, male vocalist, playful, lush, summer, rhythmic, optimistic, love, ethereal, hypnotic, dense, anthemic, warm, atmospheric, boastful, bittersweet, drugs, romantic, poetic, sensual
Claire 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑
This may be the freshest I've ever gone into any album listen. I don't know the album, I don't know any songs by the band, and I've never even heard of The Stone Roses themselves before today. I'll admit though, these tracks are bops.
The Stone Roses are like if Oasis were a jam band. Lots of long, self-indulgent noodling, but I don't mind, because they deliver with catchy hooks in equal part.
"She Bangs the Drums" feels like the kind of optimistic, upbeat song you'd hear in an 80s movie, during a montage in which the main character tries on a bunch of different outfits. It conjures nostalgia without ever having listened to it before.
Don't tell Charles Manson, but "Don't Stop" has that classic backwards-recorded British psychedelia sound from circa 1970.
"Elizabeth My Dear" borrows the melody of medieval tune, "Greensleeves", to take a shot at then-Queen Elizabeth. I'm sure it was a powerful, or at least interesting message in its time, but in 2025 Seattle without any of the social context of 1988 Manchester, it's hard for me to appreciate what they're doing here. If I want to listen to “Greensleeves”, I'll listen to Simon & Garfunkel, thank you very much. Good thing, “Elizabeth My Dear” is only 53 seconds long. It is the one track preventing "The Stone Roses" from being a perfect record in my mind though.
Other than that though, this is a near-perfect album for me, blending pop goodness with artful ambitions. At times you can hear The Stone Roses’ 1980sness, and they emerged from the same Madchester scene that produced New Order. But in my mind, they share more in common with Britpop giants from both their past and their future. When I listen, I hear The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Oasis.
Listen Party: 3/18/25
Released: 1990
Genres: Alternative Rock, Indie Rock, Surf Rock, Post-Punk
Tags: energetic, male vocalist, anxious, noisy, melodic, quirky, science fiction, warm, rhythmic, abstract, summer, love, female vocalist, psychedelic
Claire 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑
I've always had an appreciation for goofy, silly, weird rock outfits that don't take themselves too seriously. The Presidents of the United States of America and The Aquabats come to mind. I've long thought of Pixies to be a more avant garde and critically-acclaimed version of that. Like I can’t name a single “funny” song by them, but some songs have kind of a “funny” sound. Do you know what I mean?
To be fair, I've only ever known their hits, and let's face it - this is Bossanova and not Surfer Rosa. But hey, those names rhyme; maybe it'll be good! It does seem that critical reception of the album was that of disappointment after back-to-back masterpieces in Surfer Rosa and Doolittle. But maybe that makes Bossanova the perfect starting place for a Pixies novice. No room for disappointment when you've never experienced full-on appointment.
One review I read called them Surf Rock for Goth kids, which I found hilariously accurate. As a Boston-based outfit, they're still geographically closer to California than they are to their Crawley, England contemporaries, The Cure. But you can hear some similar production in the guitar and vocals.
"Velouria" and "Dig for Fire" are the singles off this album, and for good reason. They're among the best. I also enjoyed "Cecilia Ann", "Rock Music", "Allison", "Is She Weird", "The Happening", "Hang Wire", "Stormy Weather", and "Havalina".
Listen Party: 3/18/25
Released: 1963
Genres: Contemporary Folk, Singer-Songwriter, Acoustic Blues, Talking Blues
Scenes: Greenwich Village Scene
Tags: poetic, acoustic, protest, political, male vocalist, conscious, mellow, introspective, autumn, passionate, bittersweet, humorous, philosophical, warm, melodic, melancholic, playful, war, breakup, love, romantic, sarcastic
Claire 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑
At 42 years old, I can’t remember a time when I didn’t recognize Bob Dylan’s iconic sound, and for just as long, I’ve appreciated his unique vocal delivery. That said, I don’t think I’ve ever listened to an album of his all the way through, and I’m not sure that I actually know more than a handful of his tunes.
‘Blowin’ in the Wind’, is one of those songs I knew, and its position as the first track of “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan”, gave me hope that maybe I’d know more tracks off of this album. Alas, it was the only tune I recognized. My first recollection of hearing this song, was when Jenny performs it on an acoustic guitar in a strip club in the film, “Forrest Gump”. Wikipedia tells me that it was Joan Baez who popularized the song, but Bob Dylan did indeed write it. The melody is from an old Negro spiritual called ‘No More Auction Block’.
As for the album itself, I quite enjoyed the more melodic tracks. The B-side is stacked in that regard. I expected folksy, which “Freewheelin’” delivers on, but it’s also bluesier than I had anticipated. Seeing as Dylan is a well-known harmonica player, I’m thinking that’s probably on me.
Red Headed Stranger - Willie Nelson
Listen Party: 4/4/25
Released: 1975
Genres: Outlaw Country, Singer-Songwriter, Contemporary Folk, Western, Old-Time
Tags: concept album, calm, mellow, melancholic, male vocalist, crime, acoustic, lonely, death, pastoral, bittersweet, soft, sombre, sad, passionate, love, minimalistic, introspective, sparse, melodic
Claire 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑
Red Headed Stranger is a concept album. I went in trying to piece together the pieces of the stories being told in each song, and came up with the following:
The Red Headed Stranger starts off as a Montana preacher who suspects his wife is cheating on him. He rides his horse into town and finds her with another man in a tavern. Upon discovering them, he shoots them both dead.
While he's mourning the death of his wife, another woman becomes enamored with the pony that the stranger's wife used to ride. She throws herself at the stranger in an attempt to steal the pony, and in his grief-stricken state, the stranger kills her too.
He ends up in a Denver tavern, suggesting he's running south from either the Montana law, his haunted memories, or both. In his mourning, he finds comfort with a new woman.
Then in Remember Me, Nelson sings a song about broken vows, and that he hopes his now ex-wife will remember him. So…is she dead or not? I may have read too much into a supposed plot here.
I was really ready to fall in love with this story about the fallibility in all of us, and that you can shoot your problems dead and skip town, but you can't outrun the consequences of your actions. I think that's more on me for dreaming up those expectations than on Willie for failing to deliver on a premise I conceived fifty years later. But still, how great would that album be?
As for the music itself, the sparse instrumentation really does help set the scene to tell these stories of loneliness and isolation. The musical quotation of "Home on the Range" in O'er the Waves is a nice wild west touch.
Speaking of the wild west, when Willie Nelson sings, "It was the time of the preacher in the year of 01", do you think he's talking about the year 2001? Because I have it on good authority that the graduating high school seniors of that year ruled.
Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space - Spiritualized
Listen Party: 3/25/25
Released: 1997
Genres: Space Rock Revival, Art Rock, Neo-Psychedelia, Dream Pop, Symphonic Rock, Shoegaze, Noise Pop, Blues Rock
Tags: drugs, lonely, melancholic, psychedelic, space, dense, romantic, atmospheric, male vocalist, eclectic, breakup, introspective, bittersweet, Wall of Sound, lush, love, sad, existential, hypnotic, longing, sentimental, alienation, epic, spiritual, melodic, ethereal, warm, depressive, soothing, poetic, progressive, mellow, surreal, noisy, cold
Claire 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑
Another band that I’m hearing for the absolute first time. It’s hard to understand exactly how Spiritualized passed me by entirely. With The Stone Roses, I was 6 when they released their self-titled album. But “Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space” was released in 1997 - the same year as Blink-182’s “Dude Ranch”, an album I absolutely wore out. I’m thinking Spiritualized is one of those bands that were well-known in the UK, but never really found a market in the US. That, and this is an album that front-to-back, is about drug addiction. Maybe a 14-year-old in an American land-locked suburb was not the target market.
“Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space” alternates between soothing, spacey, shoegaze and edgier, noisier bluesy rock. As the album progresses, the cycle accelerates, and the edgy, noisy bits grow edgier and noisier. This is almost certainly a deliberate choice by Jason Pierce to mirror the cycle of getting high and crashing into withdrawals. The final track is seventeen minutes of alternating cool jazz and pure noise.
This is a museum album for me - lots of artistic merit, but not necessarily something I want hanging on my wall. I can appreciate what the artist is doing, but I have a hard time imagining myself listening to the album all the way through ever again.
I do enjoy those spacier, shoegazier songs. “Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space”, “Come Together”, “I Think I’m in Love”, “All of My Thoughts”, “Stay with Me”, “Home of the Brave”, and “Cool Waves”.
But songs like “The Individual”, “Cop Shoot Cop…”, “Electricity”, “Broken Heart”, and “No God Only Religion” are harder to appreciate on their own. And maybe that’s the point. In life, you can’t have the good without the bad. You can’t have the high without the low.
Except that it’s 2025, and I can make playlists easily now. Maybe someday somebody will invent a kind of heroin that works the same way.
(Pronounced 'Leh-'Nérd 'Skin-'Nérd) - Lynyrd Skynyrd
Listen Party: 3/28/25
Released: 1973
Genres: Southern Rock, Blues Rock, Hard Rock
Scene: New Wave of British Heavy Metal
Tags: male vocalist, energetic, sentimental, warm, bittersweet, passionate, melodic, pastoral, love, uplifting, rhythmic, playful
Claire 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑
I’m genuinely surprised I didn’t hate a Lynyrd Skynyrd album. Sweet Home Alabama and Free Bird were always just so-so songs for me. I was aware of the Confederate flag flying antics. And that’s about everything I knew about the band.
I did have to pause to consider whether I wanted to listen to a band that aligned themselves with the Confederate flag. Ultimately, I discovered that every single member of the original lineup on (Pronounced 'Leh-'Nérd 'Skin-'Nérd) is dead. And in that case, I feel ok giving the album a listen to understand its importance in pop music history. It’s easier when I don’t feel like I’m actively contributing to shitty behavior.
The album is mostly filled with music that doesn’t actively grate on me. In my book, that’s a classic 3-moon rating. But there’s a couple songs that to my surprise, I actually enjoyed, which was enough to push it to 3.5.
Tuesday’s Gone is one of those I-didn’t-know-I-knew-that-song songs for me. Those are always fun to (re)discover. I’m certain I’ve heard it in a movie, so I googled it. It’s been featured in a few, but I almost definitely know it from the closing scene of Happy Gilmore.
Gimme Three Steps is just kind of a fun rock’n’roll song.
But that’s it. “If I separate the art from the artist, I KIND of like it”, is not exactly high praise, but it’s more than I expected for Skynyrd’s first album.
At Mister Kelly’s - Sarah Vaughan
Listen Party: 4/14/25
Released: 1957
Genres: Vocal Jazz, Standards
Tags: female vocalist, melodic, urban, longing, humorous, mellow, ballad, sensual, improvisation, nocturnal
Claire 🌕🌕🌗🌑🌑
Jazz is a more challenging genre for me. I imagine that a vocal jazz album like Sarah Vaughan At Mister Kelly's is probably as accessible as it gets. It's not the kind of music I'd seek out, but Vaughan's buttery smooth voice is very easy to listen to. I can see putting the record on in the background to lend an air of sophistication.
I do find myself in disbelief at some of the stuff they let into the final recording. In Willow Weep For Me, we here something get knocked over, followed by the audience laughing. Without missing a beat, Vaughan ad libs, “I’ve really fouled up this song real well”. This is well executed and the recording does a good job at giving the at-home listener some of the thrill of live music.
But in the closing track, How High the Moon, after singing “How high the ocean, how high the moon”, an embarrassed Vaughan sings, “I don’t know the words to this song, but I’m going to sing them anyway,” before going into a sung explanation of how Ella Fitzgerald performs the song, and finally settling into a skat rendition. To be clear, I don’t mind the skatting, but the transition from failing to recall the lyrics to skatting is painfully awkward.
What makes this all the more baffling is that the album starts off with the MC explaining that because Sarah Vaughan’s recording an album, she’ll be singing off of a sheet of lyrics. Where was that lyric sheet by the time “How High the Moon” came around?
Maybe for the live-music-oriented jazz genre, a single take is sacrosanct. I don’t know. But in 2025 it just seems unbelievable to me that they’d release an album with SUCH a big flub. It’s even more shocking that that same album would make it onto a list of 1001 albums to hear before you die. Were audiences more easily impressed with Vaughan’s “ability to recover” than I am today? Or is this evidence of an “old-music-better” bias.
Getz/Gilberto - João Gilberto, Stan Getz
Listen Party: 3/31/25
Released: 1964
Genres: Bossa Nova, Samba-Jazz, Cool Jazz, Samba-Canção
Tags: mellow, tropical, warm, soft, summer, romantic, peaceful, calm, soothing, male vocalist, acoustic, love, female vocalist, lush, bittersweet, longing, sentimental, sensual, happy, uplifting
Claire 🌕🌕🌗🌑🌑
Another album by an artist I’d never heard of, but one glance at the track listing, and I immediately recognized The Girl From Ipanema. A little bit of research on Wikipedia tells me that while it was not the first recording of the song, this version by João Gilberto and Stan Getz is the first to feature any English lyrics (performed by Astrud Gilberto, João’s wife), and therefore the first to go mainstream worldwide.
The Gilbertos perform all of the vocals on Getz/Gilberto, with João also performing on the acoustic guitar. Bossa Nova, if you didn’t know, is essentially Samba with the distinctive rhythm performed on acoustic guitar. I’m reminded of Seu Jorge’s Portuguese, acoustic David Bowie covers from the Life Aquatic soundtrack.
Stan Getz joins in on Getz/Gilberto with a tenor sax solo, giving everything a cool jazz flavor. I’m not sure if it’s a stylistic choice by Getz, or perhaps the limitations of mid-1960s recording technology, but the sax sound is especially raspy. It grates on me very quickly, and I found myself wishing that Getz/Gilberto had dropped Getz. Sorry Stan. I’m sure more seasoned Jazz and Bossa Nova listeners would disagree.
I did really enjoy the Boss Nova sound though. It has such soothing, mellow, and sophisticated qualities. I imagine it would make the perfect complement to an upscale cocktail party. I’ve never really understood what Bossa Nova was, much less appreciated it. I think that makes Getz/Gilberto the most boundary-expanding Strange New Places album I’ve listened to yet, and that’s pretty exciting.
So - Peter Gabriel
Listen Party: 4/17/25
Released: 1986
Genres: Art Pop, Pop Rock, New Wave, Ambient Pop, Sophisti-Pop
Tags: male vocalist, passionate, melodic, warm, lush, introspective, eclectic, bittersweet, poetic, sentimental, melancholic, rhythmic, atmospheric, nocturnal, soothing, conscious, longing, progressive, rain, ethereal, urban
Claire 🌕🌕🌑🌑🌑
I won't question Peter Gabriel's influence on popular music. He and Phil Collins were early champions of the Prog Rock movement of the 1970s in their band, Genesis. And with his solo albums like So, Gabriel was helping to train Pop music listeners to pay attention to World Music. But I fail to understand his appeal to the MTV generation.
He just seems so dorky. I'm saying that as someone who's given Weezer's Blue Album a perfect score. But with Weezer, it's like "we're nerds and we know it". Maybe it's my 90s kid bias, but Peter Gabriel sounds like Adult Contemporary to me.
There’s a good chance I’m wrong about that. In Your Eyes was featured in the most famous scene of one of the most famous teen movies to come out of the 80s, Say Anything. It would be an odd choice for your teen protagonist to go digging through his parents' cassingles in order to get the girl.
I stick with my initial premise though, that my essential issue with Peter Gabriel the rock star, is that he lacks a cool factor, that even nerds like Weezer or Talking Heads have.
In conclusion, Sledgehammer is a song about Peter Gabriel's penis.
A Wizard, A True Star - Todd Rundgren
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Listen Party: 4/10/25
Released: 1973
Genres: Art Pop, Experimental Rock, Progressive Pop, Art Rock, Psychedelic Pop, Glam Rock, Blue-Eyed Soul, Psychedelic Rock, Electronic, Zolo, Progressive Rock, Space Age Pop
Tags: manic, eclectic, psychedelic, surreal, playful, dense, male vocalist, futuristic, progressive, love, quirky, satirical, melodic, chaotic, complex, suite, avant-garde, anxious, lush, ethereal, Wall of Sound, uplifting, optimistic, introspective, energetic, warm, technical, happy
Claire 🌕🌕🌑🌑🌑
Upon my initial listening to Todd Rundgren's A Wizard / A True Star, I was prepared to give it 0 moons, dismissing it as pretentious, proggy bullshit. But it was approaching bedtime and I was tired and probably a little cranky. So I turned it off, to give it a fresh listen in the morning. And yeah, it's pretentious, proggy bullshit, but it's also...kind of fun? I think the short runtimes of most of the tracks make their weirdness more digestible. It kind of feels like a Disneyland dark ride on acid. As soon as you're getting adjusted to whatever weirdness is going on, you're on to the next new weirdness. It also goes to show how much my current mood can affect my rating. 2 moons isn't exactly high praise, but it's a hell of a lot more than the 0 I was prepared to give this record.
The Cool Jerk section of the track 15 medley, sounded familiar, so I looked it up. It's a Capitols song from 1965. In fact, it appears that track is four covers in one. La-La Means I Love You is a Delfonics song, I'm So Proud is by The Impressions, and Ooh Baby Baby is a Smokey Robinson track.
"Is It My Name?" has some eyebrow raising lyrics. "There's a reason I'm so erect", followed a bit later by "My voice goes so high you would think I was gay, but I play my guitar in such a man-cock way". Cool, Todd. Cool.
A Date with the Everly Brothers - The Everly Brothers
Listen Party: 4/9/25
Released: 1960
Genres: Close Harmony, Teen Pop, Pop, Rock & Roll, Brill Building
Tags: male vocalist, love, melodic, vocal group, romantic, playful, bittersweet
Claire 🌕🌕🌑🌑🌑
"A Date with the Everly Brothers" is such a funny concept for an album to me. I get to date BOTH of them? At the same time? And there's a picture of them at a phone booth, with the older Everly chiming in, "Ask if she's free on Friday. Oh! And tell her we'll get three straws for our milkshake and then we'll take turns smooching her!"
At 23 and 21 years old, I get the sense that the Everly Brothers are just a little too old for the songs they're singing here. The album starts with Made to Love, in which they relay the seemingly recent talk they got from their father about girls. Girls, girls, girls, as you see, were MADE to love. And apparently that's why some have eyes of blue, and why others stand five feet two. There's a gross feeling about a life lesson handed down from Papa Everly, that boils girls down to their physical attributes as evidence that their purpose in life is to be loved by men. And something about the older Everly being married at the time of this recording just makes it grosser to me.
But there's a pleasant nothingness of early rock'n'roll for me. It reminds me of listening to KOOL 105 with my dad, before he went full AM conservative talk radio. Cathy's Clown is a recognizable hit of course, but I wasn't expecting a version of Love Hurts that predates the Nazareth version by 13 years.
Crime of the Century - Supertramp
Listen Party: 4/15/25
Released: 1974
Genres: Progressive Rock, Art Rock, Progressive Pop, Pop Rock, Progressive Pop
Tags: melodic, male vocalist, progressive, lush, existential, alienation, bittersweet, introspective, sarcastic, quirky, anxious, complex, playful, lonely, nocturnal, epic, melancholic, passionate, autumn, eclectic, rebellious
Claire 🌕🌗🌑🌑🌑
Somebody tell me why the hell I thought Supertramp was a funk band. I went into this album expecting something like The Commodores or Parliament Funkadelic. This is a misbelief I've been harboring probably since I was a teenager. There was immense disappointment when I found out we were getting served yet another 70s British prog rock band.
It's hard to know how close of a listening experience you’re getting to the original album, when streaming services only offer remastered versions. So I’m not sure who to blame for the mix on Crime of the Century. I like dynamic range as much as the next gal, but I found myself reaching for the volume knob multiple times per track throughout the album. I felt like I couldn't hear the quiet parts, and then the loud parts would come in, and be WAY TOO LOUD. That makes for a frustrating listening experience.
It was so much of a problem, that I felt I owed it to myself to try the album again on headphones. It's definitely the better experience when it's not competing with the furnace or the sound of traffic passing by.
I don't know if my musical horizons are in fact expanding, or if it's Supertramp's pop sensibilities, but this has been the most listenable prog album I've heard to date. The longer tracks do drag on, but Dreamer is excellent.
Finally, I know this is the 70s and all, but somehow the disco strings and palm-muted wah guitar are a real surprise on Rudy.
The Who Sell Out - The Who
Listen Party: 4/1/25
Released: 1967
Genres: Freakbeat, Pop Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Psychedelic Pop, Jingles, Satire
Movements: Mod
Tags: concept album, satirical, humorous, playful, jingle, male vocalist, psychedelic, quirky, melodic, energetic, surreal, eclectic, sarcastic, progressive, conscious
Claire 🌕🌗🌑🌑🌑
Going in, I didn’t know a lot of music by The Who, but I had high hopes. Based on songs like My Generation [1964] and Baba O’Riley [1971], I really expected to like The Who. Maybe they would be a more counter-culture version of The Beatles? Or perhaps a less pretentious Pink Floyd?
The Who Sell Out was released in 1967, nearly half-way between those two cultural landmarks that had fed my preconceptions. Great! Maybe it shares similarities with both songs. Unfortunately, after listening, I’m mostly left with disappointment.
Pete Townshend’s concept for “The Who Sell Out” was that of a pirate radio station broadcast, complete with parody jingles. When I read that, I got very excited for the concept. On listening though, the jingles feel like a bunch of jokes that you had to be in the 1960s UK to get. At times, the silly voices delivered through British accents remind me of the video game, “Thank Goodness You’re Here”. That’s about the kindest thing I have to say about the jingle sections of this album.
As for the “real” music, there are a few good songs. Odorono, Our Love Was, Relax, and Sunrise all have pleasant melodies. And yeah, I get that at least one of those is still something of “an ad”. And then there’s, I Can See For Miles, the one song I recognized on “The Who Sell Out”, and probably my favorite track on the album.
But other tracks suffer from one or more of several issues. There’s poor recording quality that I know is beneath 1967-standards. Singer, Roger Daltrey often seems to be straining to reach his notes. And the mix is just really poorly done. Tell me why the tambourine is the loudest instrument on I Can’t Reach You.
Look, I’m not done with The Who. I know that this isn’t their most famous album. I’ll hold up my hopes that one of their others will live up to what I thought they were, but “The Who Sells Out” is just not what I wanted it to be.
Goodbye and Hello - Tim Buckley
Listen Party: 4/2/25
Released: 1967
Genres: Singer-Songwriter, Folk Rock, Psychedelic Folk, Chamber Folk, Baroque Pop
Scene: Greenwich Village Scene
Tags: psychedelic, poetic, melancholic, male vocalist, melodic, passionate, cryptic, warm, romantic, spring, mellow, love, bittersweet, mysterious, autumn, political, rhythmic
Claire 🌕🌑🌑🌑🌑
I hadn’t heard of Tim Buckley before this listen of Goodbye and Hello. According to 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, the label expected big things for his second album, but it was a commercial flop. With the benefit of hindsight, it’s easy to speculate why this was the case.
The musicality of “Goodbye and Hello” holds up well with Buckley’s 1967 contemporaries. It’s a well-produced, psychedelic and experimental LP with themes of the Vietnam War and free love. He is a gifted songwriter and singer as well.
Buckley’s command of the higher register is particularly impressive. But this is where the album also falls apart in my perspective. He often puts on a strange voice that is some mix of “the little lad” from the 90s Starburst ads and Tiny Tim.
<Wait a second…Tim Buckley…Tiny Tim. Are we sure that Buckley died of that heroin overdose in the 1970s?>
I suppose Buckley’s voice works thematically with the medieval imagery and instrumentation he seems to return to again and again. In “Knight-Errant”, he questions, “O whither has my lady wandered?”, before informing the listener that he loves his maiden upstairs and that he loves his maiden downstairs. Oh wait, is that an oral sex reference? That might be an oral sex reference.
If Buckley had a different singing voice, I think I’d enjoy the less “m’lady” songs on “Hello and Goodbye”. To close, I offer this conjecture - the 1960s listening public felt the same way.
Dire Straits - Dire Straits
Listen Party: 3/26/25
Released: 1978
Genres: Roots Rock, Blues Rock
Tags: rhythmic, male vocalist, mellow, warm, calm, playful, atmospheric, poetic, bittersweet, urban, soft, technical, melodic, introspective, lush
Claire 🌕🌑🌑🌑🌑
Why do I hate the sound of 70s classic rock so much? The whole thing smacks of effort, man. Like we get it, Mark Knopfler, you're good at guitar. You don't have to put a solo between every sung line. And when you do solo, you could at least do the decent thing and put some distortion on that thing. My favorite moments on Dire Straits’ self-titled album were the ones that sounded the least like “Sultans of Swing”.
Released: 1974
Genres: Singer-Songwriter, Folk Pop, Jazz Pop, Soft Rock, Progressive Pop
Tags: female vocalist, poetic, lush, introspective, melodic, soft, love, mellow, bittersweet, longing, romantic, passionate, acoustic, warm
Claire 🌕🌑🌑🌑🌑
I know her name well, but I don't think I could identify a single Joni Mitchell song before this listen. I imagined something a little more granola-crunchy, and a lot less adult contemporary. She has a very pretty voice, but this genre is not for me. Maybe if "Court and Spark" were produced in a context other than the mid-70s, I could get behind it. But as is, I'm not a fan.
I'll admit though, that 'Raised on Robbery' is fun and has a sax solo that I don't hate. It may be the most rock-n-roll song on the album. The last track, 'Twisted', is also a good time, but much jazzier. And while the music isn't to my taste, the lyrics of 'Down to You' caught my attention.
"You go down to the pickup station
Craving warmth and beauty
You settle for less than fascination
Few drinks later, you're not so choosy
When the closing lights strip off the shadows
On this strange new flesh you've found
Clutching the night to you like a fig leaf, you hurry
To the blackness and the blankets"
That is a damn poetic verse about a one-night stand.
Finally, Mitchell's voice is a glissando machine. She can't even help it. Whether in the recording studio or on the mall escalator, she’s just glissandoing all over the place. But what can I say? That’s Joni Mitchell for ya. 🤷♀️
Animals - Pink Floyd
Listen Party: 4/7/25
Released: 1977
Genres: Progressive Rock, Art Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Hard Rock
Tags: political, philosophical, concept, album, pessimistic, sarcastic, progressive, satirical, male vocalist, angry, alienation, atmospheric, complex, passionate, misanthropic, protest, rebellious, conscious, urban, epic, existential, dark, psychedelic, anxious, bittersweet, dense
Claire 🌗🌑🌑🌑🌑
How many albums will it take for me to get Pink Floyd? This is number three for me after The Wall and The Dark Side of the Moon, and probably my least favorite so far from a band that just bores the hell out of me. But people love Pink Floyd. What don’t I get?
The Number of the Beast - Iron Maiden
Listen Party: 3/27/25
Released: 1982
Genres: Heavy Metal
Scene: New Wave of British Heavy Metal
Tags: energetic, male vocalist, anthemic, melodic, heavy, passionate, epic, history, war, violence, death, rebellious, technical, rhythmic, triumphant, infernal, nocturnal, dark, apocalyptic, uplifting
Claire
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I like Just-John-that’s-it-that’s-the-reviewer’s-name™’s take of an intentional ironic humor behind the goofy, over-the-top production and presence of Iron Maiden. That almost makes it more palatable to me. Like, “wouldn’t it be funny if this were a band - and oh wait, it is!”
I don’t know much about heavy metal, and don’t have a trained ear for it. But I’m not convinced that Iron Maiden isn’t taking themselves completely serious on The Number of the Beast. It seems like a genre that is about pushing things to the extremes. What is the most rock’n’roll that rock’n’roll can get? A spectacle of loud, raucous music with epic guitar solos and plenty of satanic imagery.
This is my first heavy metal album, and I have trouble distinguishing one song from another. I suppose that if I stick with this project long enough, I’ll gain an appreciation for the nuance from artist-to-artist and album-to-album. But right now, “The Number of the Beast” is basically everything I thought heavy metal was, and I never really liked that genre.